books food ideas

Main menu

Post navigation

The Quince And The Cordial

Aesop really should have writ­ten a fable about the quince, in which this con­crete wreck­ing ball of a fruit is enticed into love­li­ness by the inter­ven­tion of a little lov­ing care.

I’ve always admired the truc­u­lence of the quince. Its exquis­ite per­fume and plumply yel­low fruit give the impres­sion of easy, yield­ing grace. But circle your fin­gers around a quince and you will find it as hard and unwel­com­ing as a winter’s morn­ing. Nev­er was there such a mis­match between looks and char­ac­ter. Once you know how to cajole it, though, a quince becomes the thing you always thought it was going to be from the start — sweet, del­ic­ate and fra­grant.

So to make up for the fable that Aesop for­got to write, here is the tale of The Quince And The Cor­di­al.

QUINCECORDIAL

12 quinces, left whole

850ml water

350g caster sug­ar

I have the bril­liant chef Skye Gyn­gell to thank for this idea. Pre­heat the oven to 150 degrees C. Wash the quinces and rub them dry with a cloth, to remove the soft fuzz that adorns them. Don’t both­er to peel or core them, but simply line them up in a bak­ing tray. Sprinkle over the sug­ar and pour in the water. Cov­er with alu­mini­um foil and bake in the oven for between 3 to 4 hours.

My quinces were very large and needed the full 4 hours to be rendered soft and for the juice to be richly pink. Allow the quinces to cool in the liquid. Remove the fruit and tip the juice into a jug. My quinces made 1 litre of cor­di­al. It will keep for up to 2 weeks in the fridge, but I prefer to decant mine into small plastic bottles and freeze it. That way I can pluck a bottle tri­umphantly out of the freez­er whenev­er needed, for an impromptu, showy cock­tail. The rule is 50/50 of cor­di­al to pro­secco, spark­ling apple juice or fizzy water with ice.

The really clev­er part of this fable is that hav­ing extrac­ted your cor­di­al you are still left with the cooked fruit them­selves. Slice the quinces and serve them with Greek yoghurt, maple syr­up and per­haps some toasted hazel­nuts. Or tuck pieces of cooked quince amongst the apples when mak­ing an apple crumble.

The mor­al of this fable is, of course, that you should nev­er judge a quince by its cov­er.

If You are inter­ested in pur­chas­ing medic­a­ments online, now may be the time to do so. So the next ques­tion is where can you find info that is reli­able. You can get such inform­a­tion fast and con­veni­ently by going online. There are many ill­nesses such as schizo­phrenia which have no cure. One of the most pop­u­lar medi­cine is Via­gra. What about com­par­is­on between Cial­is versus Levitra and ? Nearly every adult knows about . Oth­er ques­tion we have to is . The symp­toms of sexu­al dis­orders in men include lack of sexu­al fantas­ies. Not­with­stand­ing sex is not vital for good health, it’s cer­tainly good for any­one. So if you are exper­i­en­cing erectile prob­lems, it is essen­tial to see a cer­ti­fied doc­tor imme­di­ately for a com­plete med­ic­al test­ing. Cer­tainly, online phar­macy can hands-down help you for solv­ing your all per­son­al dif­fi­culties.

What a won­der­ful recipe, I love the idea of freez­ing the cor­di­al, it sounds like it would make a fant­ast­ic cock­tail. I made a quince vodka which is matur­ing away in. Dark cup­board, as well as quince and ginger pre­serves. But if I can get any more quinces I will be mak­ing this. Fab!

Quince and fables go so well togeth­er, and indeed I have nev­er judged a quince by its cov­er and have a long stand­ing love affair with them, but please don’t tell anyone.…..wonderful post about my favour­ite fruit.Kar­en

Charlie, this is bril­liant! Your words, your lan­guage is delect­ible, lus­cious, tan­tal­iz­ing… beau­ti­ful. And the fable is as won­der­ful as the whole idea of the Quince Cor­di­al. With pro­secco, of course… Per­fect post!

I love love love quince, but around here no one grows them, sadly mak­ing them stu­pidly expens­ive at the store. My mom used to make quince and wal­nut pre­serves and I have a recipe for a poached quince pie. Now I just need to get my hands on a few of these beau­ties. Your cor­di­al sounds lovely, and I’m sure the pink syr­up topped with bub­bly pro­secco would look and taste amaz­ing.

I love the idea of mak­ing quince cor­di­al. I found my first quinces at the mar­ket a week or so ago — I cooked them on the stove with but­ter to go with rice pud­ding (just pos­ted it if you’re inter­ested!) and I’ve got anoth­er recipe I want to try soon.

I must remem­ber to thank Mary at Mrs Miniver’s Daugh­ter for send­ing me your way. I’m always on the look out for new quince recipes. Quince cor­di­al is not some­thing I have made inten­tion­ally but I have drunk the syr­up leftover from poach­ing quinces with pro­secco. I make quince vodka every year which is deli­cious.